Therapy for Migraine Headaches

Is your life impacted by the experience of chronic migraines or headaches?

Maybe you feel stressed, anxious, or depressed in this ongoing battle and live in constant fear of the next attack.

Or, perhaps you feel like no one truly understands what you’re going through since they can’t “see” the pain (or other symptoms, such as aura)?

Migraines can be a lonely and painful struggle, impacting many areas of life.

One of my more unique specialties is helping people who experience migraines or chronic headaches. People with migraines often live in constant worry of when the next attack will happen, so even when between attacks, it never truly feels like you’re free of the struggle for many. It’s common to have to compromise parts of your life to work around them, and they can even have a significant impact on relationships, as well.

Migraines are often as much a mental health issue as medical issue

While migraines tend to be generally thought of publicly as a medical issue, since the experience of migraine headaches have such a somatic, physiological presentation — migraines can actually be triggered and exacerbated by emotional processes, as well. Migraines and chronic headaches often happen alongside other mental health issues simultaneously, such as depression, anxiety, trauma, and stress, and other issues commonly addressed in therapy. As a therapist who works with migraines and chronic pain, I can tell you that some combination of these issues often happen with migraines.

While it may not be widely known, there is plenty of literature over many decades that discusses chronic pain that has no known medical explanation to be a product of mental health. Usually, medically, where there is pain, there is medical test that shows why there is pain. With migraines and pain, while some do show a medical problem causing the chronic episodes, many migraines run medical tests that end up medically negative. This is where mental health and the emotional side often comes in. 

Chronic Pain can occur from emotions you can’t see

In my work as a therapist for people who struggle with migraine headaches, people can often come to me feeling doubtful. Many worry that I will tell them the migraines are all in their head, which is a point of trauma for people who have struggled so greatly with pain throughout their lives, only to be told it’s created in their minds or a figment of their imagination. However, very real pain and distress can be caused by things you cannot see. You may not be able to see stress, but you can certainly feel the impact of stress. The same goes for anxiety and depression, which people feel physiological effects of all the time. Some of the most significant physiological distress can happen as a result of carried trauma. When all of these mix together, the body can speak loudly. 

How does one do therapy for migraine headaches?

The therapy we do for migraines and headaches is a form of psychotherapy and counseling. However, it’s a much more integrated mind-body therapy than some forms of psychotherapy may be. This doesn’t mean we do work on your body physically. And we still do the therapy-style talking the vast majority of the time. But in a more mind-body based therapy, this means the experiences you have within your body become explored as part of the therapy. We don’t only explore your thoughts, but we explore the body experiences too, and work on an emotional level with them. We may do somatic experiencing exercises at times that are meant to integrate the mind and body so your body can release carried trauma. Or sometimes we might do emotional regulation exercises and mindfulness, if it seems it could be helpful. 

The bulk of our work will be the deeper relational psychotherapy, aimed to help you release and work through anything you may be carrying that can set the foundation for chronic pain. Just to clarify, it’s still your therapy. So each time we meet, we still talk about whatever you bring in. And within our conversations, we will be able to start to reflect on and understand patterns and emotional processes that need our attention, whether in terms of migraines and headaches, or also simultaneous related issues like anxiety and depression or anything else that would be part of our therapy.  

Moving forward from the struggle

Every person’s migraine headache and chronic pain experience is different. As a therapist who is part of your journey, I hope this can be a space where you feel safe to explore the deeper parts of you and your migraines that may be unknowingly underlying these attacks. Overall, as we work on the underlying issues in our therapy process, the aim is to decrease the frequency and severity of migraine episodes and general headaches you experience as low as possible. We will always go at your pace as we help you manage this struggle and find some relief.

Contact me for help with migraines, headaches, or chronic pain »